July 11/10 20:28 pm - DH Nationals: Report, Photos and Full results

British Columbia dominated at the 2010 Downhill National Championships at Panorama Mountain, winning the Elite men's and women's titles, plus both of the Junior titles. The course, with a mix of technical drops and pedaling sections, required a fit, all-round rider to do well, with the dry and dusty conditions giving more than a few riders problems.

Kelsey Beggs (Cycling BC) began the run of awards for BC with the Junior women's title. Remi Gauvin (PerformX/Evil) then continued the province's winning ways in the Junior men's category. Gauvin led an impressive run of seven of the top ten riders from BC, and his time of 3:28.51 was only surpassed by a single rider - the men's Elite winner Andrew Mitchell (Dunbar/Intense/Sombrio).

In the women's competition, 2008 champion Micayla Gatto (Cycling BC/Oakley) was the clear favourite, in the absence of defending champion Claire Buchar, and the West Vancouver resident was well ahead of the rest of the field, finishing eight seconds in front of second place Miranda Miller (Santa Cruz/SRAM/Pinkbike), with newcomer Casey Brown taking third. Gatto was the only woman to go below four minutes, finishing in 3:55.13 .

"I was really nervous coming into the race," commented Gatto, "but I was able to hit all my lines and have a good, clean run. The uphill pedaling sections were the worst for me, and I'm definitely going to have to hit the cross-country bike some more!"

The men's race saw a steady succession of riders move into the Hot Seat, only to be supplanted a few riders later. Ryan Vanderham set the first sub-3:31 time, only to be bumped a few riders later by his brother Thomas Vanderham - by less than half a second. Thomas Vanderham held onto the lead until the final three riders came through the finish, with Jamie Biluk (Pinkbike/Suspensionwerx) dropping the lead down below 3:30, to 3:29.84 . However, right behind Biluk was Mitchell, who knocked almost two seconds off the best time (3:27.97). The only rider left was the top qualifier - Dean Tennant (Dunbar Cycles/Sombrio), who could only manage 3:30.38, to slot in just ahead of the Vanderham duo.

"This is my third national title, and I'm really happy," said Mitchell. "It was in my mind all the time that I want to go the Worlds at Mont Ste Anne, and this made it happen.

It's my first race back after I broke my ankle last year, so I'm pretty excited to be back"

Full results from today's DH National Championship finals in Panorama BC